The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency spent Saturday encouraging people to have a preparedness plan.

Emergency management officials, along with the Mississippi Fire Academy and the Mississippi National Guard, hosted an inaugural Emergency Preparedness 5K Saturday morning.

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Participants were given free emergency supply kits.

"You don’t want to wait for that disaster to happen for you to say ‘What should we do?’” MEMA public information officer Ray Coleman said. "Go ahead and get that emergency supply kit ready that features water, batteries, anything that you can think of that you need to take with you in case of an emergency.”

Coleman also encouraged people to invest in purchasing a NOAA weather radio and have emergency alerts set up on their cellphones.

Organizers said the goal of the event was to stress emergency preparedness in a fun, family-friendly atmosphere.